The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Hockey Show: Barkov Injury Reaction

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

The Florida Panthers received devastating news this morning that their captain and two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion, Aleksander Barkov, is likely to be out for the entire season after undergoing knee surgery. Roy, David, and Ethan are here to react to the news and give their thoughts on where this leaves the Panthers. After discussing some other league news, the guys delve into their wins and fails of the week, including Panthers' backup goalie Daniil Tarasov's new mask, the San Jose Sharks' major banner mishap, and a new Minnesota Wild alternate uniform. Then, Florida Panthers studio host Jessica Blaylock joins the show to share her reaction to the crushing Barkov news, convince us why the Panthers still have a shot at three-peating, and discuss what sports movies played a significant role in her childhood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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has started in the NHL and the Florida Panthers have devastating news dressed upon them. We talk about it here. This is the hockey show. With David Draug atolle. the hockey news, Ethan

Across the Glass and Rosie on vacation or actually she's in Guatemala right now going to a loved one's wedding. Congratulations to whoever that person is. My name is Roy Bellamy. This is the hockey show and we got some bad news for Panthers fans out there. Good news for

everyone else. Good news for all the rest of the 31 teams in this league. Alexander Barkoff is getting surgery on his right knee. The injury that is sustained yesterday in practice, basically the first drill of practice. He went down in a non-contact injury and could not get back up.

He had to be helped off the ice by two members of the Panthers staff. Could not put weight under his leg. It was a bad situation and has gotten worse because he's going to miss a significant chunk of time this season. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah. It's the worst possible news. It is. And it's the worst thing in sports, which is when you feel like your team's season is over before it even starts.

No, we're not going that for it. No, no, guys, guys, what are we doing? It's Alexander Barkoff. The Panthers are not winning anything of note if Alexander Barkoff is out for the entire season. That's it. No, no, no, no. Okay, first of all, focus on the playoffs. Make the playoffs.

They will worry about that then. But we're not going to say that the season is over. That is a defeatist attitude. Are the Panthers winning anything if Alexander Barkoff doesn't play this year at all in the regular season or the playoffs? I'm not going to say no, but I'm definitely not going to say yes. But come on, that's a defeatist attitude that is... I'm just saying that's what it... You need to be a realist in this situation.

I'm not saying that's necessarily the case. That's what it feels like. It feels like your season ends before it even starts. It's the worst thing. It's like the Yankees this year when Garrett Cole went out and needed Tommy John surgery before the year even started. It's the worst thing. You lose your best player before the season even starts.

It feels like it doesn't mean it necessarily is because we don't know what Bill Zito is going to do. If they decide he's going to be out for all of the regular season and all of the playoffs. They can replace his $10 million salary in LTIR, and then we can let Bill Zito go and do his thing. So we don't know what they're going to do, but as a fan, that's what it feels like. It's a crushing blow before the season even starts. All right. Let's talk about new line combinations here. Obviously, Anton Lundel is going to end up to most likely center spot in the first line. Most likely. Most likely. But also, Evan Rodriguez,

Oh, boy, he's more important than ever now, huh? We were talking about him possibly getting traded, but now? No. No. No, he's centering the third line as of today with Jasper Boquist and Matthew Samiskevich. That line that you mentioned, the Anton Lindel, Izu Lusterine, and Brad Marchion line, is that your top line now? Based off the playoffs, it was.

And then you've got Rino and second line. Rino and Verhege being centered by Bennett. I imagine that'll be the first line, if we're being honest. So look, that roster. that we just talked about, okay? Bennett, Verhei, Reinhardt, Lundell, Lusterine, and Marshand, Erod, Mackey, and who's the other winner? Career.

No, no, no, Boquest. That's not a Stanley Cup smacky-in-the-face top nine, but that's a very solid top nine. If you compare that to a top-nine with Saucson Barcove and Matthew Kuch, obviously lesser than. But just putting that grouping up against. any other group in the NHL, that's a playoff team, that can hurt you as long as, and when you said, when you start off by saying the most important player out of the lineup, and I hesitated,

the only thing that made me hesitate, if Sergey Barovsky is Sergey Barovsky, they'll be okay. Let's be clear here. Also, they'll have options when Matthew Kachuk comes back, right? So eventually Matthew Kachuk, we all expect he'll be back around, sometime around the Olympics, right, which are in February. Hopefully he'll be back before that so the Panthers can feel some of that impact on their regular season. But if he comes back for the Olympics and then he returns to the team after, that'll be great. You have all kinds of options then because Sam Reinhart can play one C. So Sam Reinhardt is only a winger because he plays with Alexander Barkoff.

But if you put Sam Reinhardt on one C, all of a sudden he can be flanked by, let's say, Matthew Cech and Cardover Hage. And then what you can do is you can drop Sam Bennett down to 2C and have him with maybe Mackey and E. Rod at 2C. You have the Lundell Lucerne and Marshan line at 3C, and then you have all kinds of options on your fourth line, whether that be J. Bo, Greer, Luke Cunning. Trade deadline. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So the Panthers will have plenty of options, and they'll still be a very, very, very good team.

It's just how high is their ceiling without Alexander Barkoff? It's a huge question mark. I'm laughing because, as you were saying that, the name that popped into my head of somebody that they could bring in. Boy, oh boy. I showed it to Roy in the look on his. face. Who's a veteran player? That's not Sidney Crosby. Oh, I thought we were cooking it up. I thought we were cooking it up. Fair with me. Who's a veteran player who has, there's been...

My face would have been a lot different. Reported interest in Florida, not making a ton of money, offensive upside, and you're on the right path. Older, is it not, it's not Carol Caprice office. No, no, no, no, no, no. Cuckett, dude. Are you crazy? I don't know. I don't know. That would be fun.

They've got $20 million in cap space. Let's bring in Capriza. I'm lost here. Crosby. Gino Malkin, dude. Malkin! If Crosby's not... Well, first of all, we all kind of assume that Malkin's going to play out the season up there. And if Crosby's not going anywhere, then Malkin's definitely not going anywhere.

But if Malkin does go somewhere. We know Crosby wants to, he's a penguin's guy that we know, like, he's made that clear. I don't know what of getting Malkin's thinking. I mean, that would be an option. We're getting a little crazy here, but that's certainly... Oh, we're getting a little crazy here. It's a crazy day, dude. The Panthers Center is having surgery as we speak.

It's a crazy day. It's a crazy day. It's a best player on your. team is probably going to be out for the entire season. The best non-goly on your team. Speaking of the goaltenders, you mentioned Bob and also the new Tarasov, really suitable backup for this team.

I think it's a positive transition there. I like it. I have no choice in the matter. You have lots of choices. I have lots of choices. I can mention Tomas Nosek not being there, another true center. And so the Panthers are thin centerized, actual true centers. That's why Erod's playing center. Yeah. That's why you're going to see Sam

Reinhart taking a lot of face off. All a bunch of plug and play situations, man. But yes, you are right. Denil Teresov was unbelievable. He's been great in practice, too. I think it was one of the first training camp practices where there was a bunch of fans there. I think it was last, maybe it was last Saturday, but he made a couple of these ridiculous behind-the-back

stick saves that had a training camp practice crowd making more noise and owing than I'd seen in years. So that was really cool. If he's the guy that he looks like he is, I mean, look, Bill Zito liked Teresov a lot when they were in Columbus together years ago. Now they're back together. Teresov's

looking like the guy. We got the whole connection with Bob idolizing his dad back in the day and it's very cool but I'll tell you what man if he is what he has appeared to be early on that's going to go a long way towards mitigating these injury issues that we've been obsessing over for the last 10 minutes or whatever I'm drawing up the lines here guys

Coach Ethan so right now and I've got the folded paper too he's got a folded paper I don't know I just pulled the first paper I could find back there or Brooks over here yeah right 1913 23rd yeah 1913 23 25-9-17, or 25 is now 11, excuse me. Mackey Sam Miskevich, Sam Bennett, Evan Rodriguez. You mentioned 19.

This is a playoff. I'm saying this is when you get to the playoffs and you have everybody healthy. 2715-63, of course, Lucerne, Rhinon, Lundell, and Marchand. And then same fourth line as last year, Greer, Nosek, and Boquist. Yeah. That's still a very formidable team. That's still a team that can absolutely get to the Eastern Conference final. And we have to take into account that we've talked about, at nauseam, you know, over the course of the life of the show, really, what an amazing job Bill Zito has done and building one of the deepest hockey teams that we've ever seen in our lifetimes.

So this is where you, you know, for lack of a better term, you reap the fruits of that labor. This is a stay ready so you don't have to get ready situation. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and when all is going well, you're winning back-to-back Stanley Cups and everything is awesome. And when things aren't going well, you're still right there, which is kind of the point of it. oh boy all right so that's that that that was me being exasperated oh shit not good it's not good right and and you can you also can flip this middle six

and have the londell line be the second line and then all of a sudden you're looking at sam bennett who just won the cons myth trophy as a 3c like this team has options well that's the thing about the panthers like their top nine is so interchangeable like it really you could base like which line you think is the top line on the minutes and that change night to night, depending on who they're matched up against. That's the luxury of what Bill Zito has done with this team. Paul Maurice is basically going to look like Eric Spolstra

as far as starting the line of combinations is concerned. He's going to put these lines in a blender the entire season just to make up for the loss of Alexander Barkoff and Matta Cucke and Tomas Nosec. So that's the situation right now. The Panthers are in a bit of trouble. They are going to lose their first-line center. They're captain for a good business.

this season. A. The Hockey Show has a new YouTube page. Please follow us there at the Hockey Show DLS. The Hockey Show DLS. That's on YouTube. We also have a TikTok, The Hockey Show 7, and on X, Instagram, and threads at Hockey Show DLS. So we are on social media, and I'm sure Rose is very happy to have mentioned that right now.

We are everywhere. So there was another significant injury that happened. This one happened in Dallas. The Star's Alastair captain, Jamie Ben, who was diagnosed with a collapsed lung. A collapse lung. That's painful. Yeah. That was during the Star Street 2 overtime win against the Minnesota while.

Ben skated off to the bench. After a shift, he took a hit in the third period. He said he wasn't feeling right. After taking that check and lucky for him, there's a home game. Because you cannot fly with a collapse lung. No. That would have been a disaster. I have been in the hospital with a collapse lung before.

It is not fun. they, what, for me, it was partial. So I didn't need a chest tube. If Jamie Ben needs a chest tube, that is a painful recovery. It's not a long recovery. Like, I don't think, if that's what it is, like you'll probably only miss, like, a couple months while the heels up, I think. Yeah.

But that is not going to feel good. And what's going on with captains? The captains will go down. Like, in the same day, we find out that two of the captains that would be contending captains to hoist the Stanley Cup are now out. for extended periods of time. That was a complete hole. What's going on?

In Jimmy Ben's lung, a hole. Just a straight-up hole. If you're an NHL captain today, are you, like, driving a little cautious to the rink, you know, making sure the seatbelts clicked on and looking both ways before you cross the parking lot, tie in double knot and – I don't know. Are you worried? Well, if I was a New York Ranger, I'd be worried if I was going to be traded because that's what they usually do to their captains. They only survived their –

The captain scored a goal last night, actually. The contract, yeah. Jay Z. Miller, congratulations. You are now the captain of the New York Rangers, watch your back. Never played for Vancouver. That never happened. I forget. It was like Rocky Five, apparently. I feel like he probably wants to pretend that that's true. So happy to be back in New York. Where did the stars go from? I mean, you know, they have cover. The stars will be okay, too. Like the Panthers, they are, they're not as obnoxiously deep.

I think it's more of a little bit sneakier depth on Dallas, but they've got some really good players. I think they'll be okay. Things get tough here. I'm looking at their lines now after I mean, they've got three lines, I would say. Fourth line is kind of okay. Their defensive depth isn't my favorite in the entire league, but I know they'll be fine without Ben. I think they have plenty to cover it off, but certainly, you know, it's going to be a big question for them

how long he's going to be out for it because that doesn't sound very fun. Don't sleep on Lee and Beechel on that Star's Blue Line. He was really good last year. Just saying. David, why are you angry? You're going to do this to me, huh? Yes, I am.

I'm angry because I sit on information too long. I'm angry because I'm overcautious as a journalist. You know this. The Barkov News just came out as we record this. It's around 11.30 noon on Friday. I had this yesterday, but I held off. I wanted to be sure. I'm frustrated because you remember when the Winter Classic happened, you know.

I showed you the – I had that like a month before it came – before it was out. I had to sit on that too. I can't mention it here. You showed it to me. Like, hey, let's talk about it. Nope, we can't do it. So I, Roy viewers, well, Roy says I need to be less cautious and apologize later. That's the advice that Roy gave me.

And I don't think he's that wrong. I think maybe I, I don't know. I feel like we're getting really personal on the hockey show right now. But yeah, I'm upset, man. Yeah, the mood has been, I think everything is just like, you mentioned everything is just down. It's just like, we're all just sad. I can feel it in the air. Like, this news is just crushing us.

And we're doing some introspection here, Dave. Well, I mean, how would you feel? Like, I've worked my ass off to get to where I am in my career. And now I have, like, legitimately good sources that feed me really good information. And I just... I'm going to be your therapist for a second. I'm going to be your therapist for a second. Okay.

Here we go. Here we go. Imagine you're on the couch. Lean back. Jeremy over here. Look at this guy. Lean back here. All right.

Lean him back. Dave. Hat down. What scares you? Why do you refuse to share the information when you have it? What are you afraid of? Look deep into yourself. I'm afraid of it being wrong.

But you trust your sources, Dave. And it's never been wrong before. I've never been fed bad information. I just have this fear. Trust your gut. Are you afraid of people getting mad at you? I don't want Bill Zito to be mad at me. Why would Bill Zito be mad at you?

Because he'll trade me. Fugino Malkin. He'll trade me. Why would he be mad? What are you afraid of? Go deep into yourself. Oh, I'm like, dude. Go deep into yourself?

You had to take it there. I'm just trying to do some introspection here. If you trust your... What I'm getting at is, if you trust your sources, you trust your information. Go for it. I very much do. I'm just such... I'm so fearful because it's been...

It's been a long path to get to where I am, and I don't want to screw that up. I don't want to piss off the wrong people. But I guess that's part of the business, right, Roy? Yeah, listen, it's not like you're a part of some podunk radio station in the middle of the outskirts of Arkansas. I mean, you work for the hockey news. This is a major publication. You work for the hockey show as well, Dave. I mean, that's the biggest thing.

The fact that I've been able to associate myself with so many things that have the word hockey attached to them makes me feel good. So that's a positive. Well, some good news out of Las Vegas is the Mitch Martin era has begun for the Vegas Golden Knights. He played last night. got an assist on Jack Alco's goal to make it 2-1 Utah was leading at the time and the Golden Knights

ended up winning three to two over the Utah Mammoth in that preseason game. So he's already made a valuable contribution to the team. Congratulations, Mitch Marner. Trade money well spent. Yeah.

Well done. Good on you. Good on you. Who were we talking to? I think it was Jeremy before the show. We're talking about Mitch Marner going away from the Leafs. Yeah.

And basically we're saying was Mitch Marner the problem in Toronto where he didn't perform in the playoffs or was that just the Toronto problem because the whole team doesn't seem to perform in the playoffs. Yes. So we'll see. I don't know. Obviously, the people in Vegas are very confident that it's a Toronto problem and not a Mitch

Marner problem. I tend to agree with that just because Mitch Marner's got so much talent, maybe getting out of Toronto, getting out of that headspace, his home team and all the treasure. Maybe Vegas will be better for him. But I don't know. I think Vegas is going to be a juggernaut this year. I mean, considering that Mark Lazarus, has had his credential revoked for asking a question about the Canada 5 and their interest in Carter Hart.

Speaking of fear of the journalist. Let me get my joke off. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. What I was going to say is, that made me. What I was going to say is he'll fit right in in Vegas if reporters aren't allowed to ask the tough questions. Oh, he'll be happy.

That, did that piss? I mean, I don't know how much you guys know, Laz. I listen to the athletic show, the athletic hockey show. sometimes he does great job he's a great reporter he asks all the important questions for him to be have his credential revoked for asking a simple question that I think a lot of

fans have interests about that was not a good look for the Vegas Gold Knights it's it's not like it's unheard of like that when I read that I'm like oh it's you know been in situations like that before but like it's just it's a nice glimpse into I guess what journalists

and media are aware of is that every team every PR department is so different you can have some that are just open and let you kind of do whatever and you can have some that are much more tight and about what they want their players to talk about and not talk about but that was I mean to say

like to go up to a guy and to ask him questions about a very topical thing and then to have your credential revoked because you quote ambushed a player in the locker room like what is ambushed a play I mean approaching a guy in a media open locker room and asking him questions like that whole thing I did not like that at all

Under zero circumstance, should a journalist lose their credential because they asked the question about somebody who's not even on the team. A completely fair question, by the way. A completely fair question. If the PR department asks these journalists not to bring this stuff up, and then they do it anyway, that's another story. But it does not sound like that happened here. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't like this at all. Yeah, that's completely inexcusable. And we're seeing a lot of that everywhere. outside of sports, inside of sports of sports of journalists just not being able to do their jobs and that's just inexcusable. We want you to report the news that we want you to report. Right.

We don't need you to ask about why we're considering signing these five players. Anyway, I just wanted to bring that up because I know as a show we probably all wanted to show our solidarity solidarity with Laz there. He's a great reporter. He gets a great job.

And I wanted to show we stand with you. So keep doing your thing, Las. We love you. There's another jack guy in the NHL Did you know that? I do now. Yeah. Two Jack Guys on the same club, apparently,

because Florian Jack Guy got to play with his brother Arbor and the Canadian's 4-2 win over the Flyers on Tuesday. In fact, both of the Jack-Eye brothers scored a goal in the game. One of them got in a fight, right? Yeah, one of them got in the fight. Sounds about right. Yeah, I mean, that's what they do, Jack-Eyes fight. Two Jack-Eyes don't make it right?

Yeah, okay. Florian made a 2-0-0-0 in the first period, and Arbor made it 4-2 in the 3rd with an empty-net short-handed goal, and the mom, Simona, was in attendance at the game. I liked that they did the show the mom. Wait, I heard a great story about this on 32 thoughts this morning. The mom works at a Costco in whichever part of Canada they live in. And the manager at the Costco told her, what are you doing here?

Go watch your son's play and made her leave her job and go watch your son's play. So that was really, really cool. Canada thing, too. The most Canada thing ever, dude. I love that. That's a hockey mom right there, man. Well, it's a hockey Costco. That's a hockey Costco manager.

I love that. It's a Canadian Costco. And that's what it is. Winds and Farrells of the Week is presented by Yeagermeister. Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Yagemeister, damn, that's cold for more. Visit yagemeister.com. Drink responsibly.

David, what's your win of the week? My win of the week was from a preseason game in Dallas earlier this week. Somebody decided to show up ready to go. You got to stay ready to be ready? Yeah, you got to stay ready so you don't have to get ready. Yes, well, that's what this man did. He showed up full goalie gear, sitting in, he's like, the only thing missing is like a sign saying eBug ready. I love this guy.

It must have been a huge pain in the ass. Because I'm sure he drove there. Get out of your car. You got to walk to the arena and all that gear. It's hot. It's hot easy to move around. And it's Dallas. It's August, September, whatever it is right now.

September. So, yeah, it's the end of September for trying out of. but yeah, I thought that was awesome. Anytime you see a goalie dressed in full gear and he's not in between the pipes, I think it's pretty cool. Yeah. So, yeah, get on him.

Yeah, definitely an e-bug situation. De Niro Tiro Tsov had a fantastic game and the Panthers 4-2 went over to hurricanes on Wednesday. That was the last bit of good news that we got, Panthers-related. But anyway, he had 47 saves on 49 shots, and he did it with style because take a look at his helmet here. For those of you listen on the podcast, audio-wise,

Osov's helmet has what appears to be a robotic panther on a head with his mouth open. It's like a Thundercats vibe a little bit there. That's really cool. Yeah. It's similar to John Van Biesbrook's Panther on his helmet. If you remember his helmet from the early 90s. That's like the most iconic Panthers thing. You know, that's anyway. Don't get me started. Beezer's helmet's awesome. Yeah. So yeah, it's a badass helmet. It's a beautiful looking helmet. It looks like a robot panther. Yeah, I like the Whistler area, too. I think that's pretty cool. Yeah, it probably made a medal. That is a badass helmet. Ethan, what's your one of the week?

Staying in the aesthetic department, we had another great alternate jersey drop this week. The Minnesota Wilde, I believe they're honoring their 25th anniversary, or celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, and they pulled out these absolute beauties of an alternate uniform. I love the numbers here, especially 97 is such a great hockey number. and Caprizov looks awesome, but I really like the gold accents on this uniform. I think it's something they could look to incorporate more into their look.

I'm personally a fan of the Wild's look. I know that some people aren't, especially the kind of foe throw, the foeback, the foeback, excuse me, thank you. Minnesota North Star look that they go with. I have one of those jerseys for Carole Caprizo. Yeah, you got the green one, right?

Yeah, the green and yellow one. But these are really, really good. like that's a much better look than they have going on now. I would roll with these full time if I were. If every team just went back to how they looked in like the late 90s, early 2000s, I think sports as a whole would just look better. All right, quick question for you guys. When you look at that jersey, first goalie you think of.

Oh, man, I don't remember. I don't remember. Come on, Dwayne Rawlinson, Manny Fernandez. Come on my hockey wheelhouse. Yeah, I mean, you put me on a spot there. I'm not old, dude. I'm usually better at that game. I know you are.

That's why I put you on the spot. Play the old man card. I'm always going to play the old man card because it's true. I went to Ilya Brazgalov. Okay. Was he later in his career a wild? God, that is a fun goalie. I was just talking about Brzgalov with, I think, maybe, was it Randy Moeller?

We need to have Randy Moeller on the show at some point. He was telling me some amazing goalie stories. Have a good next week. From back with his time with Buffalo. Like Grant Fier, Dominic. shit stuff. Oh, man. We need to have

moles on the show for sure. Him and Buffalo, that was that was Alexander John Muckler, I think was the coach. Alexander Muglioni

was on that Yeah, on that team. It was like the game that never ended against the Devils, I think it will, like four overtime. Moore was a Buffalo

Sabre from 91 to 92, 92 to 93 and 93 to 94. So 91 to 94. Yeah, Morgan was on that team, yeah. I think Lafonte, or Pat Lafontein was either on that team

or he's on the Islanders. at that point, I believe, if I'm remembering. See, I remember that shit. Well, you get to like mid-2000s Wild, I'm like, oh. It's the goaly stuff that fails you. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I want to admit something.

I'm not a fan of those Wild jerseys. Really? I don't like the fun. I mean, the fun on the back. Yeah. It's just. Our friends on the What Chaos Show don't love the Wilds branding, but I do. I think they have great colors.

They've got a great logo. You got to keep in mind. They have a couple really good jerseys. Two bears. or in this league, because you've got the Bruins. Yeah. And now you've got the wild, so you have two bear mascots. That's true.

So, yeah, they're kind of flooding the zone with bears in this situation. But, yeah, that's the situation in Minnesota. They got themselves throwbacks now. Isn't there something weird about the wild logo that it doesn't look like? If you look at the full body, it's like, it's jarring to see it with the full body. Dave, we've got to get to your fail of the week. Okay, my fail of the week. So the San Jose Sharks decided to put up some new banners.

They wanted to condense them. You know, teams have done this when they get several banners. You know, the Miami Heat down here did it. The Panthers didn't have to do it at some point, I'm sure. So the sharks put up some new banners. But the problem is they put up fake news in their rafters. They decided to take credit for the President's Trophy in 2015-16 when they finished third place in their division that year. That wasn't them.

No, that was the Washington Capitals. That was the year that the Panthers won the Atlantic Division when the Yager year. The winning streak was tripped year. That was, yes, exactly. Yeah. But how does that happen, Roy? Ethan? There's so many layers for this to get through for it to end up in the rafters.

It's not just like one person sends an email and then that's it. Like this is to go through like several sets of eyes. And then it has to actually go up. Like I've been waiting all week for like the message that, nope, they were just trolling us and ha ha ha ha jokes on you guys. But no, I haven't seen that yet. So I don't know what they were thinking. They did win the Prince of Wales trophy that year. So maybe there was some kind of confusion.

But they haven't won the president's trophy since 2009. No, I think maybe that was supposed to say Western Conference champions. Maybe. That's what the banner is there for. I don't know. It's crazy. What are you guys doing, San Jose? Whatever. Yeah, well, they have since fixed that problem.

I would think so. No, just leave it up there. Yeah, who cares? A potentially serious situation happened in the Ontario Hockey League. The London Knights played the Windsor Spitfires on Saturday, and the Spitfires scored late in the third period of their 4-1-1. win in the ground was celebrating. In fact, the fans were pounding the

glass so hard that it shattered and the glass, all the shattered glass fell on Knight's head coach Dale Hunter. And he ended up getting minor cuts when the plexic glass in his head. He's so lucky that's only minor. Yeah. So it was a bad

situation. He got lucky. Oh man, it just shattered and fell all over them. It was a bad situation. It was like showered in glass. Like that that that's is he okay yeah have you guys ever seen that video from like a I don't even know what level hockey it is it's like youth hockey and a dad like breaks the glass and somebody from the back with a heavy Minnesota accent yells way to go Paul no that reminds me of this video if you've never seen that that's a good one it's something

I've referenced in my life all the time you probably don't remember this but Roy probably does when was it Tidomi in Philly yeah the fans fell over he fell over he fell over he fell over the glass. The fan fell in the box and Domi pummeled him. Yeah, and there's a famous highlight of Trevor Lyndon checking one of the, one of the St. Louis Blues players into the glass shattered over a fan. Yeah, that's pretty famous. Bench fighting, by the way, next time we have Billy Lindsay on, you got to talk to him about he was involved in a very famous bench brawl in juniors that's actually on YouTube. That's awesome. Yes. Ethan, what you fail? My fail of the week goes to, I'm not sure exactly who the player is on the Utah Mammoth,

but they leveled a hit on Kail McCarr and then got their ass. Last beat by Gabriel Alandiscaug. Not a good idea to mess with Kail McCar and an even worse idea to mess with Gabriel Landiscaug. You don't want to be hitting superstars like Kail McCar in the preseason. You're going to end up paying for it. This was almost my win in the week because it's so awesome that Gabe Landiscag was beating guys up in the preseason. We'll give it to whoever decided it was a good idea to mess with Gabe and McCar.

Sam Lipkin. Thank you, Dave. Yes, sir. That's a journalist right there, boys. All right. For those of you who are watching on Drap King's Network, we have Jessica Blaylock. She is the Florida Panthers studio host for Script Sports. She's on as a guest, and she's going to be crying because of the news that happened with Alexander Barkoff. It's just a sad, sad situation down here in Florida, and I'm sure everybody's happy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I've already seen comments of Maple Leaf fans and all his fans happy with his injury. You know why, Roy? Kiss my ass. Because they're losers.

They don't know how to win. Like the Panthers know how to win. Jessica Blaylock joins the hockey show next. This episode is supported by FX's The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truth seeker, who's always on the tale of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a power. powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing. He must be on to something big.

FX is the lowdown. All new Tuesdays on FX. Stream on Hulu. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days, delivered with Uber eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groom lawn delivered, but you can get a chicken parmesan delivered.

A cabana? That's a no. But a banana, that's a yes. A nice tan, sorry, nope. But a box fan, happily yes. A day of sunshine? No. A box of fine wines? Yes. Uber Eats can definitely get you that.

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a storm that followed. The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is now streaming only on Disney Plus. Jessica Blaylock joins us. She is the Florida Panthers studio host for script sports, and normally I would say like a little joke, you know, a little icebreaker to have some fun here. And what I was going to say is she had a better summer

than anybody in this studio and in that studio over there. But now I can't even do it. I can't do it because the Florida Panthers captain is hurt. The summer's over, so it's okay. It didn't ruin the summer, right, Jess? Your amazing summer is still intact. Like, all the amazing photos that we were following on Instagram, like, that all still happened. You're still... Yes, correct.

An amazing summer is still intact. However, my mood for the time to come is obviously not nearly at the excitement level that it was 48 hours ago because, like we heard, Roy mentioned, just the devastating news. about the injury to Alexander Barkov, who currently is in surgery as we speak, and we should be getting a statement from the team later on this afternoon, giving us more information on the extent of the injury

and the time frame that we can expect the captain to be out. And Paul Maurice, you know, we just spoke to him less than an hour ago after the morning session for the Florida Panthers, and he said that they are going to be very transparent when it does come to this injury. It is a knee injury, but again, the captain currently in surgery as we speak and will have more information later on this afternoon as to the extent and the time frame, but it certainly does not look good. I can't do this, man.

I'm sorry. How did just summer go with Jessica? How is the summer? Holy cow. The summer was amazing. I had my first offseason in probably 10 to 15 years. So I traveled. I read books.

I went to the movies. I rode my bike. I got back in the gym. Spend time with my dogs, of course. That was the top priority. So yes, summer was amazing and feel fully rested and ready to get back to Florida Panthers hockey for sure. So the reason that you had a full summer, just to give everybody a glimpse into the Blaylock Magistry, is that you are working full-time hockey now.

You're no longer doing baseball, which was a big part of your life. So I have a question for you kind of on that regard, because you've covered baseball. You've covered basketball. You've covered a lot of sports in your professional life. And my question is, which athletes are the most fun to be around, and why are they hockey players? So what's funny is I would actually say it is a tie between hockey and baseball because the biggest thing with baseball is the pure amount of time that you spend in the clubhouse. And especially the fact that I was on the road. So it wasn't just the clubhouse.

It was the team playing. It was getting to the hotel collectively. at sometimes three, four o'clock in the morning, whereas, you know, I have been with some of these hockey players for now 11 years, you know, in particular, Alexander Barkoff, Aaron Eckblad, and so it's so different in the sense that obviously the way we get media for hockey is a lot more structured. But the time we spend in the clubhouse is so much more extensive. And there's a lot more downtime to just have like a regular conversation about, hey, how's your family? Who did you draft for fantasy football this year? And so on and so forth. So it's a different vibe for sure

between the two. But I'm lucky in the sense that like the Panthers at this point, so many of them feel like my little brothers or my children, to be honest. Oh, come on, Jessica. good. No, I'm like, guys, I'm like 20 years older than Mackey Samiskevich. Like, there is a large age gap now between me and the players. But, but yeah, so I think, I think for baseball, there were just a, there was a lot more downtime to have just like regular life conversations versus it's a formal interview, if that makes sense.

All right, Jess, we, I know none of us want to talk about it, but let's get back to the news here. Talk me off the ledge. Tell me why, we'll get to that. Tell me why. No, we will not. Tell me. What ledge do you want me to?

Yeah, I mean, there are multiple ledges. The dolphins, the gators, the barcoff. All right, pick a ledge. Okay, we're going to go with the Barkov ledge. So, Jets, tell me why. I started the show today saying that as a fan, it feels like the season is over before it even starts when you lose a guy like Alexander Barkoff. Convince me that this is not true and the Panthers can still win.

in a Stanley Cup and three Pete without Alexander Barkoff. Yeah, no, I feel your pain. And honestly, it's a gut punch. Like, there's just no getting around it. It's an absolute gut punch to lose a player like Alexander Barkov, not just because of what he does out on the ice and really impacting every aspect of the game, right? Even strength, special teams, defensively. I mean, I think he's hands down the best two-way forward in the league.

and he's got a couple of Selkies to prove it. And it's absolutely, like, breaks my heart that he's most likely going to miss the Olympics. That, to me, is the most devastating thing of all of it because he is the face of Finnish hockey and you wait so long for this opportunity to represent your country. Like, that to me is just the part that absolutely is gut-wrenching. Now, me trying to put a positive spin on it on why I think this team is building. to be able to overcome a devastating injury, even to a player of Barkoff's caliber. You look at the past couple seasons, there are lengthy stretches that they've had to play

without an Aaron Eckblad, without a Matthew Kachuk, without an Alexander Barkov. There have been stretches where they have had to be with multiple elite players for a lengthy amount of time. And what have we seen from this team? Everybody finds a way to step up. Whether it's Anton Lundell, who is going to obviously shoulder a huge amount of responsibility this year, you've got to assume that he's going to be your top line center at this point. You know, whether it's to me having a guy like Brad Marchand in your dressing room now, who wore the seat for the Boston Bruins for so many years, right? And his ability to be a vocal leader.

The fact that you have a guy like Sam Reinhart, who finished second in the Selkie voting, who is, like Farcock, that defensive-minded two-way forward. That you have a Sam Bennett that's an identity player, that you have a Carter Hagee who is able to come up with so many clutch goals at key moments. The one good thing about this team, Bill Zito has done a tremendous job building depth. You still have so many talented elite players in that dressing room. The fact that this team finds away time and time again, no matter what they are up against, to come through, get the job done. The fact that Paul Maurice has had in past seasons to be creative with his line combinations. And you have, you know, an Anton Lundel who's played with Ettau Losterinen and Sam Reinhart,

if you make that a line again. The fact that you have a Verhegey who has played on that top line, who has also played alongside Bennett on that second line, the fact that Lusterine and yes, for Boquist, there's several players who can shift from playing the wing to being a center. You have so many players that you have tremendous depth with and you have so many players that you have positioned flexibility with that I do think the Panthers are one of the few teams in the league that could have this devastating of an injury and find a way. You're not going to replace Barkov. You're not going to replace him in any way, shape, or form. But I think with what the Panthers have, they're at least going to be able to soften the blow of everything you lose. in losing the captain for an extended period of time.

I feel better now. Okay. I do, I do, Jess. I feel better now. Yeah. I still feel like crap. All right. So as you were saying,

I appreciate the effort. As you were saying, Jessica, I mean, the Panthers do have a top five in the Selkie trophy candidates in San Ryanhart. They also have Evan Rodriguez. Yeah. And he's plug and play. And about a month ago,

we were all wondering if he was going to get traded if Matthew Kachuk came back early, Well, now he's more important than ever. Do you agree? Absolutely. I mean, Paul Maurice has referred to him as his Swiss Army knife. You've played Evan Rodriguez on the top line. You've played Evan Rodriguez on your fourth line. He has been that one guy that when you need to plug a hole, you've been able to plug that hole with him. So, yeah, I think his role becomes even that much more important. He becomes even that much more significant of a player in your lineup because he is probably going to, to be one of those guys that does have to do some moving around while the Panthers figure out what their new lines are going to look like without Barkov and without Kachuk and without Tomas Nosek to start the season. So no doubt about it. Evan Rodriguez is going to be a key, key component. We saw Jeff Petrie yesterday, and he's basically the replacement for Nate Schmidt. What gaze you have on him? Well, he's obviously a veteran. He's got a ton of experience. He's got a ton of

experience. I think he's a guy that plays a physical brand of hockey. So I think he's a guy that's going to fit into the Panthers system pretty easily. I mean, I think there's always when somebody comes in, there's that period of adjustment where you're kind of trying to balance your skill set with what's being asked of you and the system that you're trying to learn how to play. But again, he's one of those players that's going to provide depth for the blue liners because Obviously, you've got your top two pairing set, right? We know that Ekblad and Foresling are going to play together. We know that Seth Jones and Nico Mikula are most likely going to play together.

So now you've got some options between Uvis Balenskis and Jeff Petrie to pair with Dmitri Kulikov. I want to move off the Panthers for a minute, Jessica, because it's very dark cloud over the show at the moment. And something else hockey-wise caught my eye this week, and I wanted to get your take on it. It's regarding Alex Ovechkin, who we all of, right? sure yeah i like him better than the other guy you know the guy who's going to be a panther you shut the fuck up whoa not in front of jess roy i'm sorry not very gentleman right not in front of jess i apologize in a panther's uniform is weird imagine that hockey for a decade there is no combination of words that you could use that i either never heard before or that i'm going to be offended

Bye. Yeah, well, he brought up a red button issue with me, so yeah. Yes. Getting back on topic. Yeah, go ahead. So TSN put out their list of their top 50 players yesterday or today, which is fine, whatever. Ovecian is number 49 on that list. And then earlier this week, Brian Hayes, who's a TSN host up in Canada, he was on with Jayonne

and he said he doesn't even think Ovechian is in the top 50 of the NHL players anymore. That kind of blew my mind because this guy is. been like, he's Alex Ovechkin. He scores a million goals. He changes the game. Everybody's watching him. He's very, I don't know, he's just really good. He's going to be a Hall of Famer. I don't know. Like, is that surprise you, Jess, as much as it surprises me that he may not be a top 50 player in the NHL anymore? It really does surprise me because all we talked about this season was how unbelievable it was that Alex Ovechkin broke a record that was previously held by the great one. Right. And how impossible everybody felt like.

that was going to be for this record to be broken. So that's point number one. Point number two, his longevity in the league. And he is not just a skill player. Like Alex Ovechkin has consistently stayed in the lineup throughout the years, despite the fact that he does play like a pretty solid physical brand of hockey. So I think just the longevity as well, considering his style of play, the consistency that he has given the Washington Capitals throughout the years. Yeah, I find that to be a little bit surprising, especially with what Obie accomplished this season. And how many times do we talk about it?

Alex Ovechkin, that one-timer on the power play, you know it's coming and you still can never stop it. Like this guy has just an incredible, incredible shot and incredible skill sets. So I find that, yeah, I find that to be a little bit surprising. He broke his leg last year. He came back in like three days. Yeah, that was crazy. Right.

And he was averaging, when he got hurt, he was averaging a little over a point of game, which is just impressive at his age, right? Because everybody's like, oh, is Obie starting to slow down a little? He's starting to kind of feel his age a little bit. No, not at all. His production this season was incredible, you know? And then you look at the points that he put up, factoring in that he did miss a stretch of games. So, no, I think Alex Ovechkin still continues to impress after all this time.

The athletic in their player tiers have OV in 5B, which is the support tier in between Ryan Nugent Hopkins and Morgan Riley. That seems a little bit crazy to me coming off a record-breaking season. All right, Jess, Roy, let me ask you another question, so I'm going to use this opportunity. I swear to God, what the fuck are we going to do about the gators? What are we going to do about the Gators? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do?

They have a hockey team in Gaysville. Yes, but I'm talking about the football team. What's the thing? What are we going to do? They had club team. Oh, my people, it kicked their ass. It is, you know, and it's not necessarily our defense that is problematic. It's the fact that our offense cannot consistently stay on the field and put up points.

And when you've got a solid defense, but you're constantly putting them back out on the field and asking them to make a stop. it's just not a great recipe for success, right? And honestly, you know what they say in all kinds of weather. We all stick together for F-L-O-R-I-D-A. So I'm going to rep my alma mater through and through. I bleed orange and blue, but we are going to continue to be in for a long year when it comes to Gator football because we still got to play for a state who looks legit. season we still got to play Georgia

who we know what they've done Ole Miss. Texas. I mean Texas troubled out the gate but that's still going to be a tough game. So yeah, just to quote Samuel L. Jackson from Jurassic Park, hold on to your butts. Okay.

All right, forget about the game. All right, so let's talk about the since we got this injury situation with Florida. Let's talk about the division at large. Do you see any changes happening in the top three and potentially any wild card implications as compared to last season? I still think the powerhouses are going to be the powerhouses, and I still believe that about

Florida. I still think that the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Tampa Bay Lightning are going to be those other teams that are right there. Super intrigued with the Leafs, especially with Marner going to Vegas, who I think is actually going to crush it in Vegas. So, So I'm always fascinated by the Leafs just because of their history being such a good regular season team and then not being able to get it done in the postseason. You know, Tampa, I love what that rivalry is turned into and how much Florida and Tampa just absolutely hate each other. Buffalo, I'm not going to believe in until they actually give us a reason to believe. Boston, I'm intrigued by because obviously they made so many changes last year and sold off. many players at the deadline. But yeah, I think when it comes to the division, you're going to

see the usual suspects. You know, Montreal, obviously making it to the playoffs last year, Ottawa as well. Do they just get that much stronger? Montreal, especially having so many good young players. So the Atlantic Division is, it's just brutal. Every single year, it's just brutal, continues to get better and better. So we'll see what happens. You know, Detroit, they've had several disappointing years. Do they finally make a comeback this year? So there's a lot of intriguing storylines around the Atlantic Division for sure. Before we let you go, Jess, I wanted to ask you about something.

With your Sam Jatson line, kind of made me think of something that we were talking about yesterday. We're all hanging out at the Panthers practice. We're getting into some pop-culture-y topics, you know, talked a little bit about the Mighty Ducks and some things like that from our childhood. So what sports movies or TV shows were the most significant to you, Jess, that helped shape your career as a sports journalist. When you think back, are we talking Mighty Ducks? Are we talking Air Bud? Air Bud.

I think I'm a little too old. Just as a dog person. Air Bud came out when I was, like, a senior in college. Is it that? I don't know if I was necessarily watching Air Bud. I thought it came out when we were kids. Did it? I thought it.

No, I got to look it out. Airbud came out in 1997, so it beat me to the world. Okay, so I was in high school. Yeah. We're in high school. I'm sorry. Airbud beat you into the world? Yeah, I was born in 99. I was born in 99.

Yeah. Listen, like, we already sound old, but that doesn't help. Oh, my gosh. Sorry. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so movies that defined my childhood from a sports perspective, honestly, the Mighty Ducks, like, I did not grow up with hockey. So everything that I knew about hockey, I knew from watching the Mighty Ducks.

and I am still personally waiting for some team in the league to perform the Flying V in a game. Like, that's all I want to see. That's all I want to see. But Iceland already debugged it. Like Wolf the Dentist Stanson showed us how to beat the Flying V. No, we're not debunking anything. I just want to see the Flying V.

The Flying V included in an NHL game. Baseball, Sam Lott. I mean, right? Like, Sam Lott was every kid's kind of dream that that, that backyard baseball, what would you do if you really lost that ball over the fence and, like, all these factions that they had to come up with to try and get it back, going to the pool every day in the summer with your friends, like, so, and honestly, okay, I know this isn't technically like a sports movie, but to me, it's one of the greatest

sports scenes from a movie, the naked gun, and Rico Palazzo singing the national anthem. And the home on the free. A bunch of bombs in the air. That thing over there. Oh, my gosh. The, you know, the game, the Angels game in, I think it was the Angels, right? In naked gun, like that whole sequence, I must kill the queen. Like that, to me, it's one of my favorite sports scenes.

and like how far ahead of its time it was the fact that they had like 15 people in the booth because how often now do we see analyst desks where there's like eight people um dr choice brothers yeah exactly exactly so i don't watch that it's been a while that those for me are probably like the mighty ducks taught me everything i knew about hockey the sandlot was kind of my go-to baseball movie and then just the baseball game from Naked Gun to me is like one of the most iconic sports scenes from any movie

of all time. And it goes, he who shall not be named rolling down the stairs in that wheelchair and then flipping up like 35 feet in the air and then fall into the ground. Yeah, that was a great ending in that movie. Jessica Blaylock is the Florida Panthers studio host for script sports.

She is going to smile while hiding her tears. We will see you on Monday when the Florida Panthers play the Carolina Hurricanes for their first home game of this preseason. Thank you for joining us, Jessica. I appreciate the time. And yeah, you nailed it, Roy. I'm going to go cry in private now. Again, thank you to Jessica Blaylock for joining us to talk about the sad, sad news of Alexander Barkoff.

We'll not contact injury going into surgery and missing a significant chunk of time. Rose is with us who is currently in Guatemala. She has heard the news. What is your thoughts on the entry to your beloved Alexander Barkoff? I don't know if in the pot, it's up, but I might not watch anything. I might not watch hockey this season. I don't know. You're going to boycott hockey?

Yeah, no, I'm going to disappear from hockey, and you guys are going to have to do all the work by yourselves because... Oh, my God. I'm not going to go to any of the games. I'm not going to do any video. I'm going to disappear forever. Caitlin Clark and Barkie in the same year is tough. You know, Rosie. That's tough.

I did not watch the WMBA because of that. Rose, you are a credential media member who goes to these Panther games to do a job along with me and David. You can light a candle at Barclay's locker. Or like maybe not. That's a great idea. Maybe not like a natural, maybe like one of those fate candles that the restaurants have in the table. Maybe you should just bring one of those and like put it on his locker stall. Yeah, I'm going to put some be in something there.

No, that's true, right? So you're going to have to find someone to go with you guys. No, no, no, no. I'll go. Hell no. Hell no. Take me. This injury news is getting worse and worse for us.

The credentials are already in Nathan. I'm sorry. All right. We love you, Rosie. We miss you. You back next week, Rose? No. No, she's back.

She's going to another college football site, another campus. No, I am staying in Guatemala. Oh, yeah, she's awful. I'm sorry. She won't be here. University of Guatemala. Yeah, yeah, yeah, U of G. U of G.

What's the nickname? UOG. The botaniers or something. Anyway, thanks to... McAcellis. The Cachellys? Oh, my God. Yes.

We sounded so American when we said that. I'm sorry that we offended you. Yeah, you offended me, guys. I offend you all the time. You offended me. Okay, great. Thank you to Gino, and thank you to Jason for everything that you do with us.

Thank you for the video of support. are awesome. Ethan, you know, you can kiss my ass. We were talking about Cindy Crosby and the Gators. What are you doing? You're sabotaging us. I have another plan. Brady Kachuk. Thanks to Rose for doing her job while abroad. And David,

I'm sorry that you got beat to the story today. I almost just said I beat myself, but, you know. That's not a good thing to say. That's not a good thing to say on a microphone. Not a very good visual. My name is Roy Bellamy. We will see you next week. Now is a good time to remember where Tequila's story truly began. in 1795 quervo invented tequila quervo what are you doing here quervo anytime someone says quarevo i show up well i do know that to be true but even

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